prize plaques from Itagaki. The tournaments were not without controversy. Players complained about Microsoft's tardiness in posting the official rules for the first playoff, and it was believed that the top posted score was not achievable by fair means. Officials, however, stated that the score was possible, and allowed the results to stand. In the second playoff, Microsoft initially named the runner up as the North American finalist, after disqualifying the winner for no publicly stated reason, but eventually had to send the second runner up to Tokyo when the first was unable to produce a passport in time. Master Ninja Tournament 3 started on September 27 and lasted 26 days. Rankings were decided by scores obtained while playing Hurricane Pack 2, and the prizes were Tecmo apparel and Team Ninja games. This marked the end of official tournaments for Ninja Gaiden, although Microsoft have retained the ranking boards for players to upload their scores. Merchandise Tecmo has built up a line of merchandise around the Ninja Gaiden name. Its online shop carries apparel and accessories such as caps, wristbands, T-shirts, key holders, and mugs. Most of the merchandise is based on that associated with the various Ninja Gaiden game launches or given as prizes in the Master Ninja Tournaments. Tecmo also published the original soundtrack of the game under their record label Wake Up on March 20, 2004. Kotobukiya, a figurine maker, includes 1/6 scale plastic figurines of Ninja Gaiden characters in their range of products. As of 2007, they have produced figures of Ryu, Ayane, Kureha and Rachel. Other versions Tecmo published two additional versions of Ninja Gaiden: Ninja Gaiden Black for Xbox and Ninja Gaiden Sigma for PlayStation 3. Essentially the same game as the original, they tell the same story of Ryu and the Dark Dragon Blade, but include additional content and updated game mechanics. Although Itagaki deemed Black to be the final version of Ninja Gaiden, Tecmo subsequently ported the game to the PlayStation 3 as Sigma. In addition to the narrative Story Mode, Black and Sigma introduced a gameplay variation called Mission Mode. Focused on action rather than character development, this provides combat-based missions set mainly in small areas, where the player's goal is to "destroy all enemies". In both Story and Mission modes, game scoring is based on the player's speed in clearing encounters, the number of kills achieved, the number of unused